PetaPixel

YouTube never disabled embeds on Twitter or Facebook, letting visitors to those products watch a YouTube video without ever coming to our site. YouTube worked with Apple to make our app a default experience on iOS, even leaving it effectively non-monetized until last year. Why?… Because we knew that our community was OURS only so long as we served THEIR needs.

Instagram photos ceased being viewable on Twitter last December due to a strategic decision by Facebook management, which Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said was “their prerogative…” What Instagram gave up, in my mind, was owning the word “photo” on Twitter… These days “photo” for me on Twitter could mean their own native hosting, or FrontBack, or imgur, or any number of other destination links.